Shelbourne 1

Galway United 0

THERE is only so much that effort and honesty can get you in the top-flight: Galway United had plenty of both on a dirty wet aul night in Dublin on Monday, but once again that effort and honesty went unrewarded as a lack of quality up front meant their dominance went unrewarded.

The visitors as good as owned the ball for the first 15 minutes – and they owned it in the Shels half for that matter – but once the home side scored against the run of play, United simply could not find a way back into the game.

It was a similar story on the opening night of the season at home to St Patrick’s Athletic: the concession of an early goal, domination of possession, but lacking the nous to break down a well-drilled deep defensive line. It was like watching someone trying to pick a lock with a piece of string.

The win in Dundalk was helped by the home side persisting with a ludicrous high defensive line despite being burned for pace time and again by United; while the win over Waterford was down to two sides slugging it out looking to play football.

Shels weren’t too interested in playing football on Monday night, not after John Martin gave them that early lead, but they didn’t have to be, as a well-drilled side aided by a cabbage patch of a pitch helped to stifle any and all of United’s attacking intent.

For the third game in a row, John Caulfield named the same starting XI – and the same nine subs – and his side utterly dominated the opening 15 minutes, with Shelbourne unable to get out of their half, and Shels manager Damien Duff unable to stay inside his technical area.

The former Republic of Ireland international was absolutely livid with his side’s efforts, all flailing arms and star-jumps on the sideline as his side were pinned back inside their own half. So of course they went and opened the scoring.

Ed McCarthy played a ball to Karl O’Sullivan just inside the Shels half in the 15th minute, but he committed the cardinal sin of waiting for the ball to come to him, allowing former United man, Paddy Barrett, to nip in from behind to win possession and shuffle the ball to Mark Coyle on half-way.

Pictured: Galway United’s Colm Horgan keeps track of Waterford FC’s Harvey Macadam during Friday night’s Premier Dvision tie at Eamonn Deacy Park. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.